Before You File Your Case

Before you file for bankruptcy, you must do several things:

Receive a briefing about credit counseling from an approved agency within 180 days before you file. (If you and your spouse are filing together, each of you must receive a briefing before you file. Failure to do so may result in the dismissal of your case.) You may have a briefing about credit counseling one-on-one or in a group, by telephone, or by internet.

Find out in which bankruptcy court you must file your bankruptcy case. It is important that you file in the correct district within your state. To find out which district you are in, go to Santa Clara County Bankruptcy Court Info:

When You File Your Case

There are several forms and documents that you must give the court at the time you file. Additional forms and documents must be filed no later than 14 days after you file your bankruptcy case, although they may be filed at the same time you file your case.

You must file the forms listed below on the date you open your bankruptcy case. For copies of the forms listed here, go to http://www.uscourts.gov/FormsAndFees/Forms/Bankru ptcyForms.aspx. (The list continues on the next page.):

Statement About Your Social Security Numbers (Official Form 121). This form gives the court your full Social Security number or federal Individual Taxpayer Identification number. To protect your privacy, the court will make only the last four digits of your number known to the general public. However, the court will make your full number available to your creditors, the U.S. trustee or bankruptcy administrator, and the trustee assigned to your case. This form has no separate instructions.

Your filing fee. If you cannot pay the entire filing fee, you must also include:

A list of names and addresses of all of your creditors, formatted as a mailing list according to instructions from the bankruptcy court in which you file. (Your court may call this a creditor matrix or mailing matrix.)

Your credit counseling certificate from an approved credit counseling agency. (See Before you file your bankruptcy case, above). If you have received the briefing about credit counseling but have not yet received the certificate, file it no later than 14 days after you file for bankruptcy. If you have not already received the briefing and believe you are entitled to a temporary waiver from receiving it or that you are not required to receive the briefing, see line 15 of the Voluntary Petition for Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy (Official Form 101).

For Individual Chapter 11 Cases: List of Creditors Who Have the 20 Largest Unsecured Claims Against You and Are Not Insiders (Official Form 104). Fill out this form only if you file under chapter 11.

When you file your bankruptcy case or within 14 days after you file

You must file the forms listed below either when you file your bankruptcy case or within 14 days after you file your Voluntary Petition for Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy (Official Form 101). If you do not do so, your case may be dismissed. Although it is possible to open your case by submitting only the documents that are listed under When you file your bankruptcy case, you should file the entire set of forms at one time to help your case proceed smoothly.

Although some forms may ask you similar questions, you must fill out all of the forms completely to protect your legal rights.

The list below shows the forms that all individuals must file as well as the forms that are specific to each chapter. For copies of the official forms listed here, go to http://www.uscourts.gov.

All individuals who file for bankruptcy must file these forms and the forms for the specific chapter:

Schedules of Assets and Liabilities (Official Form 106) which includes these forms:

Credit counseling certificate that you received from an approved credit counseling agency

Copies of all payment advices (pay stubs) or other evidence of payment that you received within 60 days before you filed your bankruptcy case. Some local courts may require that you submit these documents to the trustee assigned to your case rather than filing them with the court. Check the local court’s website to find out if local requirements apply. Go to http://www.uscourts.gov/courtlinks.

If you file under chapter 13, you must also file:

Chapter 13 Plan (Official Form 113, if in effect). If Official Form 113 is not effective when you file, many bankruptcy courts require you to use a local form plan. Check the local court’s website for any specific form that you might have to use. Go to http://www.uscourts.gov/courtlinks.)

Local forms you're likely to need

Each district court has its own preferred format for the mailing matrix -- a list of of creditors that you must supply when you file, formatted in a certain way so that the court can scan it.

Matrix requirements can be found in the local rules or sometimes a separate instruction sheet available on the website.

Your court may also have a local requirements regarding any reaffirmation agreement you make with a creditor. Courts review such agreements closely to make sure the creditor is not ripping you off and that one creditor is not benefiting at the expense of others.

Can't find what you're looking for? Additional forms can be found at the official forms page forms provided by the US Court system. All bankruptcy forms available for free as Adobe Acrobat (PDF) forms. Source: USCourts.gov

Adversary Proceedings

Can't find what you're looking for? Additional forms can be found at the official forms page forms provided by the US Court system. All bankruptcy forms available for free as Adobe Acrobat (PDF) forms.

Official Instructions and Committee Reports

Instructions are easier to come by than they used to be. The official U.S. Court website now offers instructions with these forms.

In addition they offer a link to the congressional committee reports that were written at the time the forms were created and revised. These committee reports are not step-by-step instructions, but rather a broad description of the purpose of each form.

Books that provide instructions for filling in official forms

The legal publisher Nolo publishes a comprehensivebankruptcy form instruction book (which I co-author). This book takes you through each form, line by line, explains what the terminology means, and provides examples. It also alerts you to situations that may require more help.

Bankruptcy Software

There are several software products designed for lawyers that will prepare full sets of bankruptcy forms, but these programs assume you already know bankruptcy law and are designed for filing multiple bankruptcies. In short, they're not appropriate for first-time bankruptcy filers.

There are also a few packages purportedly offered for consumers. Proceed with caution. Some of these packages are little more than PDF versions of the forms, which are are available free from the courts themselves.

If you are not a lawyer, the only value of these products would depend on the quality of the instructions they provide. You'll need instructions on how to complete each form, as well as a good understanding of how each form fits into the larger process of filing for bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy Lawyers

Bankruptcy Petition Preparers (BPP)

Bankruptcy Petition Preparers (BPPs) are nonlawyers who offer help in filling in the forms. The latest revision of the bankruptcy laws formally recognized these services as legitimate, but also imposed severe restrictions on what they can charge and scope of the services they can perform.

What BPPs Can't Do

Lawyers have jealously guarded their turf when it comes to bankruptcy. Lawyers already lost this battle in the area of tax preparation. Today, non-lawyer tax preparers openly advertise the good advice they can give you in addition to completing your forms. BPPs can do no such thing when it comes to bankruptcy forms.

Under the new bankruptcy law, BPPs must give debtors a form that lists all the things BPPs can't do (form 19B), and all the topics they can't discuss -- basically anything that might be characterized as legal advice. Thus, the sort of tips that tax preparers commonly give to people when preparing their taxes, BPPs can't give when bankruptcy forms. (Some believe this raises profound First Amendment and restraint of trade issues.)

Does the court supply instructions with the bankruptcy forms?

Generally, no. Most forms do not come with instructions, and that's a shame. Much of the lingo used on these forms is difficult for non-lawyers to decipher.

Before the enactment of the new law, instructions were provided with most forms. Since the new law was passed, court websites have removed the instructions they used to provide, saying they are "under revision". This is unfortunate as most of the forms have not changed significantly, and the old instructions re more helpful than no instructions at all.

For up to date instructions, you can buy Nolo's book, How to File for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. You'll not only get instructions for all forms, but also step by step guidance throughout the entire bankruptcy process.

What is PDF?

PDF stands for "Portable Document Format" which is a format created by the Adobe company and supported by their free Acrobat Reader. (Other companies also produce software that can create and read PDF files.)

What are "fillable" PDF forms?

The standard forms provided by most US Bankruptcy Courts are not "fillable" PDFs forms. All you can do is print the blank forms and fill them in by hand with a pen or typewriter. (A what?).

However, in a less obvious place, the US Trustee's Office also publishes fillable PDF versions of the Bankruptcy Forms. These fillable forms allow you to type your answers into the forms. Unfortunately, if you are using the free Acrobat Reader, you cannot save the information you have typed into these fillable forms. (If you own the full version of Adobe Acrobat -- which costs several hundred dollars -- you can save the info you have typed, and return to the form later.)

Where can I find fillable bankruptcy PDF forms for free?

Fillable PDF forms allow you to type your answers into the forms.

The standard forms your court links to are not of the fillable variety. However , in a less obvious place, the US Trustee's Office also publishes fillable PDF versions of the Bankruptcy Forms. Unfortunately, if you are using the free Acrobat Reader, you cannot save the information you have typed into these fillable forms. (If you own the full version of Adobe Acrobat -- which costs several hundred dollars -- you can save the info you have typed, and return to the form later.)

Where can I find free or low-cost tools for saving what I type in fillable PDFs?

All official bankruptcy forms are available PDF forms, and fillable versions of the forms are available.

Unfortunately, the free Adobe Reader does not allow you to save the information you type in to fillable PDF forms. The full commercial version of Adobe Acrobat allows its users to save a PDF and the form field answers will remain entered within the form's fields. Users of the full version of Acrobat can save a form and its answers, close the form, and then return later to complete unanswered or incorrectly answered fields.

FyTek PDF File Save, (free, recommended) which can be found at: http://www.fytek.com/products.php?pg=pdffilesaveThis product allows Acrobat Reader users to save the content of completed forms using a work-around. Read the documentation that comes with this product to learn how to use it.

Other, products let you "print" to a PDF file but do not act as form-fillers:

For Mac Users

A helpful LegalConsumer user sent along the following message about form-handling tools available for Mac users. We have not tested all of these options, but have no reason to assume they are inaccurate. As always, feel free email if you spot something that is incorrect.

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I couldn't help but notice that the tools listed don't include any options for those of us who are using Macs instead of PC's. Since I recently had to find out this information for myself, I wanted to send a summary in the hopes that you will find it useful and can add this information to your website.

Adobe's products are available for OS X as well as Windows. I believe that the prices are probably similar -- this is the one option I didn't really look into.

Apple's OS X has some good built-in functionality for dealing with pdf files, including the ability to save any printable output to a file in pdf format using an option available from a button on the lower left of the print dialog box. The print dialog box is used whenever the print command is used, from any application on the system, so a filled-in form can be intercepted via the print dialog box and saved to a pdf format file, instead.

There is also software for viewing pdf files, called "Preview". It will allow you to view files, fill in forms if they are set up as fillable versions, but sometimes there are incompatibilities -- for example, some of the currently available fill-in forms have 3 buttons at the bottom for "print" "save" and "clear", which appear to be able to be activated when clicked on, but they don't actually do what the label indicates they are going to do. I assume that when used on a PC, they work, but it could be that these are still works in progress. Preview will allow you to annotate a non-fillable pdf form with text that is overlaid, but it is not particularly easy to use this feature, and there are some good shareware programs available that make this process a whole lot easier to do.

Here is a list of the shareware applications that I looked at and my impressions of them:

PDF Pen is $49.95 and can be used to fill in pdf forms, save them, print them etc.

PDF Pen Pro is $94.95, and can be used for all the above, plus you can create pdf files, including fill-in forms, that can be used on any platform.

The Pro version probably is unnecessary for most of your readers but it does contain some nice features and it is less costly than Acrobat. Both of these products appear to be very polished, professional and full featured applications. The main reason I personally chose a different product in the end was because I did not feel I could afford even as little as $30 extra for software, even though it was clear that I was going to have to find something to make the process of dealing with the forms a little easier, especially since, when I first started looking into this, the fill-in forms had not yet been made available.

FormMate by White Wolf Software (www.whitewolf.com) is a reasonable option if all you're going to do is fill in the forms, print them and sign them. It costs $20, and is easier to use than the other similar products I looked at. Plus, it will let you save frequently used items -- such as your name, for example -- which has turned out to be useful. In addition to my name, I have saved a text item that inserts an "X", another with "N/A", and so forth. My only complaint is that I don't think that the font size of the text that is inserted can be changed, but the size that is used is reasonable for filling in the documents.

These shareware applications can be downloaded from the author's websites as listed, and activated from the menu within the application. In all cases, a free trial is an option, but the demo product is limited in that it prints a watermark onto any document until a registration key is purchased and entered, so it can't be used except as a demo until it is unlocked with the reg. key.

There are a couple of other shareware packages available also, but they did not end up being particularly memorable, in my opinion, and so I have not included them here.

I hope this info will be useful to you and that you will add it for the many folks who use Macs. I appreciate the effort that has obviously gone into setting up this website. It's a good resource & I'm pleased to see things like this becoming available. There should be more people like you, committed to helping empower people with enough legal knowledge to act on their own behalf.

- CL, LegalConsumer user

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Thanks for the info for Mac users, and the kind words, CL, editor, LegalConsumer.com

Glossary of Bankruptcy Terminology

How can I get copies of my filed tax returns?

From the IRS website:

If you need an exact copy of a previously filed and processed return and all attachments (including Form W-2 (PDF)), you must complete Form 4506 (PDF), Request for Copy of Tax Return and mail it to the IRS address in the instructions along with a $39 fee for each tax year requested. Copies are generally available for returns filed in the current and past 6 years.

In cases where an exact copy of the return is not needed, tax return and transcripts may be ordered. The tax return transcript shows most line items contained on the return as it was originally filed, including any accompanying forms and schedules. In most cases, a tax return transcript will meet the requirements for lending institutions for mortgage verification purposes.

The transcript can be ordered by completing a Form 4506-T (PDF) or calling (800) 829-1040 and following the prompts in the recorded message. There is no charge for the transcript and you should receive it in 10 business days from the time the IRS receives your request. Tax return transcripts are generally available for the current and past three years. If you need a statement of your tax account which shows changes that you or the IRS made after the original return was filed, you must request a "Tax Account Transcript". This transcript shows basic data including marital status, type of return filed, adjusted gross income, taxable income, payments and adjustments made on your account. Tax return and account transcripts are generally available for the current and past 3 years.

Form 4506-T (PDF) can also be used to get proof from the IRS that you did not file a tax return for a particular tax year.

Forms can be downloaded at Forms & Pubs or ordered by calling (800) 829-3676.

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